Roar of the Lions - An England World Cup Story.

[Imager36]

Roar of the Lions

On Sunday, Graeme Swann said that England had 'no chance' of winning the 2015 ODI World Cup. Today, England rather proved that by crumpling to defeat against India in the second ODI.

But I'm planning on putting that right.

I've given myself the limited overs captaincy of England, and the aim of the game will be to try and win - or hopefully make the semi-finals of - that World Cup at the end of the year. If that goes well, we might advance further into the future, with the aim of picking up more silverware for the country in the various tournaments.

I've also chosen to take limited overs captaincy of Derbyshire. I won't be focussing at all on the Derbyshire team to start with, but it'll allow me to see scorecards of all the county matches, and possibly to give the odd player year-round coaching if I can sign them!

With all that in mind, here is what the ODI itinerary looks like for the lead up to World Cup 2015.

• England in Scotland, 1 ODI.
• Sri Lanka in England, 5 ODIs.
• India in England, 5 ODIs.
• England in Sri Lanka, 2 List A friendlies, 7 ODIs.
• England and India in Australia, double round robin, total of 4 or 5 ODIs.
• World Cup 2015

So, that's 22 or 23 ODIs and 2 List A friendlies in order to get my final XV and XI for the World Cup sorted. I'm looking forward to it!

We start with the single ODI in Scotland. In order to get a feel for our options, I take a very experimental 12 (read: basically a Lions side) up to play this match. I'm not going to do this by the book, forum.

Varun Chopra
Alex Hales
James Taylor
Eoin Morgan (C)
Samit Patel
Ravi Bopara
Jos Buttler (K)
Chris Woakes
Chris Jordan
Toby Roland-Jones
Steven Finn

Moeen Ali

The pitch looks good for seam and we want to see Samit, so Moeen is the man to miss out on this first occasion. Buttler is pretty much the only person playing almost assured of his place in the full side. We win the toss, and bowl first on a cloudy morning, aiming to restrict the Scots.

[Imager36]

Auld enemy dispatched as England thrash Scotland

Our start was very poor indeed. We lost Varun Chopra for one, and Hales and Taylor failed to get us up to a good start as we didn't progress beyond 20 (20!) in our first 10 overs. Thankfully, we gradually were speeding up a little, although Hales did not seem to react to this increase in pace, and eventually fell for 35 from 73 (73!). They'd given us a good foundation though, and it was time to tee off a little. James Taylor massively increased his scoring rate, and Eoin Morgan made 28 from 28 balls before Samit Patel came in. Samit went for a run a ball to start with, but after he reached 40 accelerated massively. Taylor fell around this time for 89 when he was looking like getting his first ODI century, and Bopara came in for a little cameo alongside Samit before Buttler was bowled first ball. Patel was smashing it to all parts though, and in the final over of the innings on 99, he hit a massive six to seal his maiden ODI century. Somehow, from a drab start, we'd been lifted to 294.

It always looked like it would be too much for Scotland, and so it proved. Woakes and Finn dismissed one opener each, and then Jordan was destructive as he grabbed a five for for his efforts. He was too expensive against a team like Scotland though, so it may not be entirely in his favour, whereas Toby Roland-Jones on début bowled 5 economical overs, before Samit finished it all off again.

My Man of the Match goes to Samit Patel... and I think you can see why for yourselves.

[DaveK93]

All the best mate, pretty daunting task ahead!

[Imager36]

Sri Lanka ODI Series Preview

For this upcoming series we've removed Varun Chopra and Steve Finn from the squad, and added Bell, Root, Broad, Anderson and Tredwell. Sri Lanka... oh gosh they've got a good squad. There's class all the way through, from Jayawardene and Sangakkara near the top of the order, to the spin of Senanayake and the near unplayable at his best Lasith Malinga. If there is a way to win, we're going to have to tear through the players that make up the rest of their team. We're still finding our combinations out, so this series may well end in defeat, I imagine. Anyway, here are the teams for the first ODI.

It's a bit of a dustbowl at the Oval, so we hope for spin success as Tredders, Patel and Moeen all play. OH YEAH, and Ian Bell captains the side.

England	Sri Lanka
Alex Hales	Tillakaratne Dilshan (K)
Ian Bell (C)	Kushal Perera
James Taylor	Angelo Mathews
Joe Root	Kumar Sangakkara
Samit Patel	Mahela Jayawardene
Moeen Ali	Dinesh Chandimal
Jos Buttler (K)	Tissara Perera
Chris Woakes	Jeevan Mendis
Stuart Broad	Sachithra Senanayake
James Tredwell	Nuwan Kulasekara
James Anderson	Lasith Malinga

Typing Sri Lankan names is exhausting.

Anyhow, we win the toss, and choose to bat first. Don't ask me why the computer picked Dilshan to keep for them, it just did.

[Imager36]

The two Pereras sink England

We won the toss and chose to bat first, hoping to mirror our success in the Scotland match. We started much more brightly this time, progressing to 45/0 from the first 10 overs, though Bell was out soon after for a still sluggish 14. Taylor followed soon after unfortunately, meaning we couldn't increase the rate of scoring as Hales eventually fell for 46, a creditable effort. Root fell soon after for 15 as well, and at 104/4, we were in a lot of trouble. Thankfully, Samit and Moeen combined to give us a chance in the match with a partnership of 95, increasing the scoring as they went, to take us to 199 with 9 overs to go. Unfortunately, Buttler and Woakes only managed 7 each, and Samit fell soon after Moeen to mean we didn't make the most of those 9 overs, Tredwell's 17 scraping us over the 250 mark.

Unfortunately, our bowling posed their top 3 barely any problems. They ticked along rather nicely at 5 an over, and the result was never really in doubt. We gave them a scare when we took them from 186/1 to 190/5, but unfortunately they recovered all too easily from that, and Chandimal, Perera and Mendis finished us off in style.

The England man of the match is once more Samit Patel, as his runs took us from a sticky situation into a position where we should have got 270. Shame he couldn't convert, really.

We make one change in our team for the second match at Chester-le-Street, with James Tredwell being replaced with Toby Roland-Jones. Sri Lanka stick with the same side that won at the Oval.

[Imager36]

The Match Where Andy Starts to Regret His Decision

Yeah... I think it's fair to say we were properly outclassed in this one. We won the toss and bowled first this time, but the seamers struggled to gain any sort of foothold at all, as Dilshan and Perera racked up 99 for the first wicket, smashing Woakes and TRJ especially to all parts. Eventually Woakes got rid of Dilshan, but Mathew came in and picked up where he left off, and 52 runs later, Sangakkara did the same on replacing Perera. When Anderson came back to finish off the innings, he got a few wickets and we got on top for a bit, but a vital 38 between Mendis and Kulasekara meant they got away with an above par total.

Hales fell for 17, and unfortunately for us, James Taylor followed next ball to leave us in a state. Root came in though, and he and Bell played well for the highest partnership of the match, 109, and almost got us up with the Sri Lankan run rate. When Bell got out though, we really crumbled. Soon we were needing 7 an over, and not Samit, nor Moeen or Buttler, did anything to help us out of our rut. The last 5 wickets fell for 23, and it looked like we'd given up hope.

My England Man of the Match is James Anderson because... well, bowling.

Team news is that Chris Jordan replaces Toby Roland-Jones for us, and they stick with the same side again. To Old Trafford we go!

[Imager36]

Eurgh, and another horror show... at least the batting worked this time.



We batted first, I thought quite well. Hales was woefully slow, making 29 off SEVENTY balls in a partnership of 105 before Mendis did for him. Ah well, he'd set us a platform, and it was one Bell and Taylor looked to exploit to maximum effect. Bell went soon after for a very well made 82 from 89 balls, but Root joined Taylor at the crease and the two rattled along at around a run a ball for a fair while, with their partnership taking us into the last few overs of the innings before Taylor fell for 84 from 70 balls with the score on 238. We didn't knock the last few for as many runs as we'd have liked, with Buttler grabbing another duck, but felt sure that 278 would make us competitive.

Apparently not, it seemed. I'm not going to dissect this, but basically none of the bowlers looked like they had a clue, spraying it everywhere to end up with ridiculous economy rates and not even taking wickets into the bargain. The fact that they made it with 6 and a half overs to go really shows that the bowling is where the weakness was in this match.

It's going to be a long old year, isn't it?

My Man of the match though is James Taylor for his 84 from 70 balls, really giving us a great platform and then striking from it himself. Makes up for 2 runs total in the last 2 matches!

Team news as we head to Lords is as follows... Ravi Bopara and James Tredwell come in for Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes... and I think we might be fishing around the country trying to find more players after this series! Sri Lanka, once more, are unchanged.

[ankur_sharma309]

Bring in Jason Roy next series, and rest Hales for a couple of game as he is out of form.

[Cam]

Try Rashid and bat him at 4! Also plunkett isn't a bad all rounder,

What about Stokes as well??

[DaveK93]

Try Rashid and bat him at 4! Also plunkett isn't a bad all rounder,

What about Stokes as well??

I concur, Rashid is amazing.

[Cam]

Although I've found Rashid not great in OD games!

A.Gale & Lees are also great for me

[Imager36]

Sorry about the gap here guys, I've been feeling pretty ill for the last few days. It'll return when I'm back to full fitness!

[DaveK93]

Sorry about the gap here guys, I've been feeling pretty ill for the last few days. It'll return when I'm back to full fitness!

Take your time mate, the England job is stressful enough as it is without being ill!

[Imager36]

With regards to people commenting on selection etc., personally I don't think Roy is an ODI cricketer, so that one leaves me cold! Otherwise, I'll generally pick how I see it based on the game I'm playing in... though I love Rashid and Plunkett, so might give them a shot soonish. Anyway, on we go.

I have no idea at all how Jos Buttler won this match.

One reason I have no idea how I won it is that I played all but the last 6 overs of it before I was ill... It looks like after winning/losing the toss and asking to/being forced to bowl first, they started pretty well, galloping along at pretty much 6 an over, with us only taking wickets irregularly. We managed to reign them back a tiny bit in the middle overs though, as Tredders, Ravi and Samit started to just contain those runs as Sangakkara and Jayawardene got stuck into a partnership. At the end, we bowled pretty well as well, as the Sri Lankan innings stayed calm at about 6 an over the entire way through, with Chris Jordan taking wickets to make up for his economy...

Not having batted so well so far though, we didn't think we really stood a chance. Bell went first ball, and at 93/5, with Hales, Taylor, Patel and Bopara back in the pavilion with him, we thought our tiny chance had rather died a death. We were up with the run rate, and Root was batting well, but it would take something special from someone, and come the moment, come Jos Buttler. His 128* from 109 balls was formed mainly in two partnerships with Root and then Broad (41 from 32), but that only took us to 265/7, and then Chris Jordan fell first ball, and all looked in doubt once more. Thankfully, James Tredwell's a solid kind of guy, so he stuck around for a while, but when he got out we still had work to do and Buttler had to farm the strike a little to keep James Anderson around. It all worked out in the end though.

The man of the match is Jos Buttler. You didn't need to be told that.

Team news - As we head to Edgbaston, homeboy Woakes comes back for the ineffectual Broad.

[UTBash]

As always a great story on it's way! I'll be starting one over the next few weeks, need to buy the game first, in the meantime I might do an ICC2013 story if anyone would be up for looking at it